We missed the hand that knocked Bernard Lee out of this Main Event, but he was kind enough to fill us in before he left.
Lee tells us that an aggressive young player opened to 3,500 on the button before he looked down at pocket nines in the big blind. The pro made a big three-bet to 11,100, but his opponent shoved right back over the top. Lee had about 40,000 chips left, and he snap-called with his nines. Mr. Opponent was flipping for the knockout with and another queen on the flop has sent Lee to the rail here in the early afternoon.
We picked up a three-way pot on the flop as the dealer spread out . Action checked all the way around, and the hit fourth street. Danny [Removed:376] led out with 6,200, and both Barry Hutter (who appears to have been the preflop raiser) and Drazen Ilich called to see the river.
It was the , and now [Removed:376] checked it again. Hutter took his cue to make a bet of 16,400, and Ilich made a relatively quick call. [Removed:376], though, spent a long time in the think tank, and he looked to cut out a raise at one point before grabbing the calling chips and throwing them into the pot.
Hutter tabled , and it was the winner. Ilich flashed his own , [Removed:376] mucked, and that nice pot moves Hutter all the way up to about 210,000 and into the chip lead as we see it right now.
We didn't see the hand that did him in, but Kurt Jewell was unable to parlay his big Day 2 stack into a deep run. The last time we saw him, he was making his rounds through the tournament room, repeating his elimination quickly to several people and wishing his friends luck.
The man who has won two WSOPC Main Events in two years will have to wait until Atlantic City to try for number three.
Picking up the action on a board, Chris Tryba and Danny Suied were heads-up with a third shorter-stacked player all in.
Tryba bet 12,500 and after about one minute in the tank, Suied popped it to 27,000. A quick fold from Tryba revealed for Suied, besting his opponent's holdings to take down the pot.